The present invention relates generally to agriculture and, more particularly to a method for program-controlled display of an electronic map image on a screen of an agricultural machine.
It is known that on-highway vehicles can have a computer screen for display of a segment of a road map. Some have a location indicator and a navigation aid pointer. The road map information is stored in electronic memory which is accessible in the vehicle, or externally by radio. The position finding pointer is entered in the road map image according to the position finding data which have been continuously obtained from a position finding system receiver arranged in the on-highway vehicle, e.g. a GPS, the road map segment being selected in each case to match the position finding data. The navigation aid pointer points in each case in the direction of road travel to be taken, which is recommended according to a preselected route.
For equipment used in agriculture, in particular farm machinery, the above-described method of operating a cartographic screen display can possibly be used for road travel, but it fails in open country and on farmland.
From EP 0635960 A1 it is known that several computers can be connected by a data transmission network to a central computer, wherein the individual computers contain agricultural cartographic data banks and the central computer collects general cartographic data bank information and keeps it on standby for scanning.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cartographic screen display as a navigation aid, in particular for equipment for agricultural use and farm machinery, which assists optimum possible navigation and optimum possible operation in open country and farm land.
It is desirable to provide a method that overcomes one or more of the deficiencies noted above.